The last journey of the ents
by Natta Smithey
Summary: Treebeard has lately had the thought of his entwife on his mind, so he calls upon the other ents to go searching once more for their lost wives.
1. The Ents choice

It had been many a year since the defeat of Sauron, the High Elves had passed over the sea and the woods of Lothlorien were now empty and peace had been restored to Middle-Earth, but Treebeard(or Fangorn as others might call him) and all the Ents of Fangorn forest were in deep sorrow. How dearly they missed their Entwives, they thought about them night and day, nothing could rid them the thought of their lovely wives.

One fine day, in the middle of June, Treebeard had just woken up and had a drink out of his bowl, he had gone about 300 'Ent-strides' as Pippin would call them, and he saw Bregelad in the distance. He walked over with his long, thick legs striding ever further. He looked at Bregelad and he seemed to be in deep thought.

"Hoom, Bregelad, hmm, what seems to be distracting your thoughts?" Treebeard asked him.

"I am just thinking about my entwife of old, it seems that lately that's all I can think of" he replied quietly.

"Hoom, that also has been on my mind" he walked off to have a good, long think.

A few hours later he came back and found Bregelad in the same place he was before.

"I have been thinking, long and deep, and I have decided that it is time we went searching for our Entwives again, it is time to call for another Entmoot and decide what we are to do" Treebeard said slowly.

Treebeard went for a walk all over the Fangorn forest, it took him many days, but he found many of the old Ents and he spoke to them of his plans and arranged for a meeting.

Treebeard and Bregelad walked to Derndingle, and waited for the others to arrive.

He sent out 3 loud calls, and got many replies.

In a few minutes, Derndingle was occupied by about 3 dozen Ents, all different from the next.

"Welcome my friends, now the time has come, for us to talk and decide whether we are going to look once more for our Entwives, I know that we have all of late been sidetracked by our thoughts of them, and I have been thinking and that is a sure sign that we must go on a search to find our long-lost partners.

If you all agree on this, there are terms, if you go on this journey, you will search for the Entwives until there is nowhere left to look, and you cannot leave the group alone, if you wish to come back here, then you must be accompanied by another Ent" Treebeard explained.

There was a silence and the only sound was that of the groaning of the earth under their feet.

"Well," Treebeard said, "what do you all say?"

"I will need to think for a while, but if I find no reason to stay then I will go with you" said Finglas (Leaflock in the language of men).

So Treebeard gave him time to think, they all stood and thought till they could think no more, after about 8 hours, Finglas spoke up.

"I have made my mind up," he said, "I will go on this search with you, but I doubt we will find them, if we do I will return to Fangorn forest with my Entwife and the Ents will forever more be joyful and filled with peace."

"Then it is decided, we will go on our search for our Entwives, but first I will give you all time to go and have a good sleep and drink enough water to keep you searching for many years."

Every single Ent went off in their own direction and had a wonderful sleep, full of dreams of their wives.

The next day, all the Ents met and set off on their journey for the Entwives.


	2. The search begins

The Ents had a plan in the ways they would search; first they would go to Lothlorien then they would head towards Mirkwood, then they would search around all the mountains, and then go through the gap of Rohan near Isengard and head towards the Shire.

They had been walking for a few hours when they reached the outer woods of Lothlorien, it was a very wonderful place, though it was empty, the elves magic was still at work. Treebeard walked past some of the gold leafed trees and when he had come to a circle of white trees, the very same place the nine companions had been many years before, he stopped and gave out three loud, clear calls, but there was no reply.

He turned to Bregelad and they continued on. When they had searched all of Lothlorien, they had a quick rest and headed off to Mirkwood. Many days they had been striding slowly, when they came upon Dol Gulder, it was a very terrible place and they were afraid. Many eyes were watching them and they walked very close to each other, they have been very big trees but the things in Dol Gulder were very evil.

Treebeard had a mind to think that why would the Entwives come here if it was so evil? They only wanted to help bushes, flowers and many beautiful things to grow, but they would not have passed through these evil woods.

"Treebeard," Bregelad said, "I am afraid, we must move quickly or those eyes shall get us, if we go this slowly we will never find our Entwives."

"Hoom, now, now, don't be hasty," Treebeard replied, "we will find them, but we must search everywhere, I am not stopping until I find them."

They moved on, a bit quicker than before and soon they arrived at the East bight, it was quite a rather simple place, with a lot of tall grass, the Ents found it hard to walk through, but they managed. When they had completed their walk through the grass, Treebeard stopped again and sent out three calls, but there was still no reply. Ents couldn't cry, but if they could every Ent would be leaving a lake behind.

They had walked on more when they came to the Old Forest road, they were weary and needed a rest so they had a "sleep", and pressed on even more, trying desperately to find their Entwives. They soon came to Forest River and passed over it, though the water was rather dirty and had a feeling of evil about it.

After a few more hours of walking, they came upon a big palace; sitting on the steps outside was a very familiar person.

"Hoom, now, good evening, master elf, it has been many years since I have seen you. I thought you had passed over the sea with the other elves" Treebeard said.

The figure looked up at him with a smile, "Fangorn," Legolas said happily, "it has been a long while since I last passed through your woods, what brings you to Mirkwood?"

"We Ents are going on a journey, to look for our Entwives, we have searched all over Lothlorien and Mirkwood, but we will not stop until they are safe in our arms, would you care to join us? It would be good to have an elf with good eyes and hearing to come with us and help us search" Treebeard said.

"I would love to help you, Treebeard," Legolas replied, "but I have to stay here and take care of my father, he has taken illness and must rest."

"Well, would not your brothers take care of him?"

"My brothers passed over the sea to the Undying Lands, but my father and I wanted to remain in Middle Earth" Legolas explained.

"Hoom, I see, well we had best be off, we can't waste any time, hopefully one day you will come and visit my forest and meet my sweet Fimbrethil. Goodbye Legolas" Treebeard said, and he headed off west, to the mountains. The other Ents followed and took one last look at Mirkwood before continuing on their journey, their last search for their Entwives.


End file.
